The invention relates to a contact pin with a first and a second end portion and a bending portion located between the end portions, the cross section of at least one end portion having a preferred bending direction and at least one bending resistance direction and the moment of inertia of the cross section of the at least one end portion, being smaller in the preferred bending direction than in the bending resistance direction. The invention also relates to a connector with a contact pin of this type. Furthermore, the invention relates to a method for manufacturing such a contact pin.
Contact pins are used in many fields of electrical equipment and electronics. Usually, contact pins with polygonal, usually substantially rectangular cross sections are used in these fields. In many applications these contact pins must be bent at a bending portion, which is located between two end portions. In a preferred bending direction perpendicular to the longitudinal extension of the contact pin and perpendicular to a preferred bending axis, which is perpendicular to the longitudinal extension of the contact pin, bending is relatively easy. Along at least one bending resistance direction perpendicular to the longitudinal extension of the contact pin and perpendicular to a bending resistance axis, which is perpendicular to the longitudinal extension of the contact pin, bending is more difficult. A measurement of how difficult or easy the contact pin can be bent along a bending direction is the moment of inertia, especially the axial moment of inertia, in the bending direction or bending axis respectively. The moment of inertia for a bending axis is defined as the integral over the square of the distance of a point to the bending axis integrated over the cross-sectional area. If the moment of inertia relating to a bending axis or a bending direction, which direction is perpendicular to the bending axis and perpendicular to the longitudinal extension of the contact pin, is high then bending about this axis or in this direction is difficult.
Contact pins are often inserted into pin sockets with a complementary form and then bent over an edge. Due to production tolerances, however, the contact pin and socket do not usually fit together precisely, so that the contact pin twists about its longitudinal axis when it is received into the socket and is locked. If in a subsequent stage a bending force is exerted onto the contact pin, this does not act along the preferred bending direction but in a different direction. The contact pin deflects towards the preferred bending direction when it is bent so that the contact pin is not bent along the direction of the bending force but rather in a different direction. The direction of the contact pin must then be corrected in an additional step, which leads to a high outlay in production.
The problem addressed by the present invention is to provide a contact pin, the processing of which does not require such an additional corrective step.